Like Samhita, I’ve never been a fan of New Year’s Resolutions. I’ll be even more honest than that, in fact — I generally think that they’re bullshit. But for some strange reason, maybe because despite good things happening throughout this year I’ve had a really bad past few months and need something to look forward to, I’m going to take a page out of her book anyway.

So, my feminist New Year’s Resolutions are as follows:

I want to work towards writing more regularly for Feministe.

Following up on my being “really” published for the first time this month (in Yes Means Yes), I’d really like to publish more writing that I actually care about.

I want to make more money freelancing — both in the “things I actually care about” trade and the “bullshit copy/content writing” trade.

I want to use that extra money to move. Trust me, my personal reasons for wanting to get out of this town have a strong feminist bent.

I want to spend more time listening to the voices of others working in social justice movements.

What are your New Year’s Resolutions this year, feminist or otherwise? Or if you also hate the concept of “resolutions” . . . what to you want or hope for yourself in 2009?

Cara, I was speaking generally. Yours was the fourth or fifth entry in my RSS feed this morning that prefaced with something to the effect of “resolutions are crap, but here are mine.” Didn’t mean to come off so negative. I was mid-coffee. Happy New Year.

1. Stop beating myself up if I don’t get to the gym as often as I’d like. I AM NOT FAT.
2. Spend more time with my horses and cats. I swear, they’re more effective than any psychotherapy. ;)
3. Smell the roses more often.

Happy New Year, everyone! I know I’m new to the Feministe community, but I’ve really enjoyed the vigorous discussion and intellectual discourse. See you in ’09!

1) Exercise more and keep with strength training which isn’t as bad as I thought. Switch from eating milk chocolate to eating dark chocolate (and I’ve already started, oh the head rush)

2) Give up television for at least a year (not exactly by choice).

3) Improve public speaking (my last minute foray into speaking at an event last week showed improvement but more work needed).

4) Finish this adventure/romance/mystery whatever it is I started with NAMO.

5) Help get new organization off the ground. Been working on that with others and it’s exciting. The ACLU national office and regional office has been helpful. Maybe eventually a more local ACLU chapter with legal assistance some day.

6) Keep blogging. Don’t get too upset about hate mail.

7) Fight for stronger civilian review even as city weakens it. Don’t give up or in.

I’m sort of in the anti-resolutions crowd for reasons that would bore you, but there are a few things I’ve been meaning to be better about (a lot of which are things I used to do and have just gotten sloppy about):

1. Start running again. I used to, and then I got busy, and I stopped bothering, and I just don’t feel as good. I get winded walking home from work, and a lot of my pants don’t fit. Since I can’t afford new pants, running will have to be it.

2. Reinstate French Fry Friday. On the one hand, it’s kind of disappointing to be French-fry abstinent for six days, but on the other hand, the anticipation of those fries can make Friday come a lot faster.

3. Spend more quality time with the dog. Outside of his walks and the occasional game of fetch, I feel like I spend more time pushing him out of my lap than I do actually paying attention to him, and that’s not fair to him.

4. Finally make some money off of things I enjoy writing, not just things I have to write.

5. Catch up with DVRed episodes of Battlestar Galactica before it starts up again on the 16th.

Huh, #5 might interfere with #1 and #3. Must ponder…

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